A new union representing 17,000 part-time teaching and support staff at Ontario's 24 community colleges was in town Tuesday to launch a membership drive to recruit employees at Cambrian College and College Boreal.
"We are here today to right a historical wrong," said Roger Couvrette, president of the recently-formed Organization of Part-Time and Sessional Employees of the Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology(OPSECAAT).
Last November, the International Labour Union rebuked the Ontario government's and community college system's longstanding policy that did not allow part-time employees to join a recognized union and negotiate collective agreements, said Couvrette.
Couvrette was joined by Ontario Public Service Employees' Union (OPSEU) bosses David Starbuck (Cambrian College) and J.P. Belanger (College Boreal).
Part-time college teachers and support staff in Ontario have no job security, low wages, no benefits and no pensions and this is bordering on criminal considering there are now more part-time staff (17,000) than full-time (15,000), said Couvrette.
Without union representation, there is no grievance procedure in place and nowhere for complaints to be heard, he said.
"So, we can be, and sometimes are, intimidated and harassed," he said.
"We get paid a small fraction of what our full-time counterparts get paid for identical work.
"Every day, college management drives truckloads and truckloads of thousands and thousands of part-time workers through that loophole (not allowing part-timers to unionize)."
The membership drive being launched by OPSECAAT "is one of the largest membership drives in the history of the labour movement in Ontario," said Couvrette.
"I want to point out that in every college, there is enormous solidarity in this membership drive between part-time and full-time staff," he said.
Starbuck said part-time teaching staff at Cambrian earn in the range of $40 per hour, but this includes preparation, evaluation and full access to students seeking assistance.
"It works out to more like $8 to $10 an hour for the actual time you spend working...more like minimum wage," he said.
Many support workers are women and immigrants and many don't dare challenge management and agree to work in terrible working conditions because their families rely so heavily on this income, said Couvrette.
Once the membership drive is completed, OPSECAAT has every intention of meeting with government officials to challenge existing laws and work out a collective agreement for members within the next several months, he said.
